Art League honors Newport photographers Drotar, Rumschlag

For almost 60 years, Fred Drotar has been capturing the world with his camera.

Drotar, 92, of Newport is a wildlife photographer and was recently named Artist of the Month by the Monroe Art League, an organization he’s been part of for at least 30 years.

Fran Maedel started the club’s Artist of the Month honor years ago.

“I’m trying to resurrect Artist of the Month,” the league’s Sandy Vanisacker said. “While searching through our archives and looking for ideas to help the Art League promote local artists, several programs from our past have been resurrected. This is one of them. I hope to encourage our artists to bring in more artwork.”

Drotar is the first in the new round of Artists of the Month. The second is also a mostly self-taught photographer from Newport, Charlie Rumschlag.

An award-winning photographer, Drotar bought his first camera in 1963 and taught himself to take photos.

“I never really took a professional course,” he said.

Instead, he traveled the world while working as a platform engineer for Ford Motor Co. While on the road he shot photos of nature, including mountains, woodlands, birds and the Taj Mahal. Since 1963, he’s taken thousands of photos. Animals are his favorite subject.

In 1975, he captured his all-time favorite photo in Florida.

“It’s called ‘Devoted Family,’” Drotar said. “It’s a picture of a nest with great blue herons in it. There are two baby herons. The male flew into the nest and wrapped his head around the female. I took this photo prior to digital. I took about four prizes with it. People bought copies.”

“I find digital a plus for nature and narrative photography,” he said.

His favorite lens are 600mm F4, 70-120mm F2.8 zoom and the 70-300 macro zoom.

Some photographers, he’s found, have now traded the lens for cell phones.

“There aren’t too many walking around with a 600mm lens that weighs 30 pounds,” Drotar said.

Drotar has displayed his work at local libraries, the River Raisin National Battlefield Park and other venues. In 2019, he even had a solo show at St. Mary Academy.

“That was my only show,” Drotar said.

These days, Drotar isn’t traveling as much, but he spends a lot of time in his basement printing his photos on canvas.

“I have a basement full of pictures,” he said. “I have a 24-inch printer. I have a collection of about 40 or 50 photos on canvas.”

The pursuit keeps him active.

“People need a hobby. It keeps me active. Most people my age are sitting around. You can’t just sit around and mope. It kept me active during COVID. I have to give it credit for keeping me going,” Drotar said.

In addition to the Monroe Art League, Drotar was a member of the former Monroe Camera Club. At one time he also led a digital photography club in his basement.

His work can be viewed at freddrotar.com.

“Growing up, I loved hunting and fishing with my dad. Hunting as a young adult, I found the northern Michigan woods enchanting,” he said.

Through the years, Drotar has kept up with the latest in photo technology and migrated to digital photography.

Charlie Rumschlag of Newport, also a recent Monroe Art League Artist of the Month, used to hunt animals. Now, he hunts them with a camera.

But his interest was deflected by a friend.

“Years later, a new friend challenged me to hunt with a camera instead,” Rumschlag said.

He had dabbled in photography in high school, but has no formal training.

“I got hooked on photography through a high school photography class many, many, many years ago. The darkroom became my favorite place for study hour,” Rumschlag said.

In college, Rumschlag set aside photography and studied electrical engineering. He still works in the field. But, in 2008, he got back into the hobby when he took his camera to Alaska. There, he took a photo that remains his favorite.

“The beauty was awesome. “My favorite is a wolf family portrait in Denali National Park. There was a family of wolves moving in and out of the brush. I shot 135 pictures of them as they moved around. Of those 135, I kept one which showed the eyes of all of them, and it looked like they were posing for a family portrait. This hooked me to get back into photography,” Rumschlag said.

Since then, he estimates he’s taken “thousands and thousands” of photos across the country.

“The pursuit to photograph wildlife has taken me from the southern-most tip of Florida to the northern-most slope of Alaska and many places between, but my favorite is still Michigan,” Rumschlag said.

To see Rumschlag’s work, visit Brestbayphoto.com and https://www.facebook.com/BrestBayPhoto

On the Net: monroeartleague.com

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Art League honors photographers Drotar, Rumschlag